A barge that was carrying 12 damaged containers salvaged from sunken vessel "Pangaon Express" capsized near Chattogram port on Thursday night.
Confirming the incident, port officials said the sunken position of all 12 containers were determined, and three were salvaged till this morning.
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Meanwhile, the port channel remained safe for vessel movement while pilots were asked to navigate with caution, said port officials.
Sources said a crane-barge was towing the barge named "Termanator", carrying the 12 salvaged containers to a jetty of New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) of the port on Thursday evening. It capsized with all 12 containers at canal number 14 of the Karnaphuli Channel around 11:50pm.
Terming the sunken position of the barge as "dangerous for surface navigation", Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) issued a notice to the mariners the following morning, requesting them to navigate with caution while passing near the location.
Ashraful Alam, managing partner of PS Salvage, which was also engaged in the salvage operation of Pangaon Express, said the barge while crossing the channel tilted to one side after it hit a stone embankment.
On condition of anonymity, a senior official of the CPA marine department also claimed there was no disruption in vessel movement on the port channel following the capsize.
He said that CPA asked PS Salvage for fast recovery of those containers.
Immediately after the accident, CPA survey vessel Jarip-9 started its operation to locate sunken positions of those 12 containers.
Ashraful Alam said PS Salvage managed to recover three containers till 11:00am today after marking positions of all 12 with floating buoys.
Port officials said the salvage firm could not start the salvage operation in last two days due to a technical glitch in their crane.
The Pangaon Express, owned by the CPA, capsized around 12 nautical miles off Bhasan Char on July 6 noon while it was transporting 72 import-laden containers from the Chattogram port to Dhaka's Pangaon Inland Container Depot.